We carefully thought about many elements in our piece to ensure the represented the social groups we wanted. This made sure our characters were relatable and therefore our audience can get more involved and feel more empathy for the characters. Because we only had two characters we had to focus closely on every aspect to them and their mannerisms, facial expressions and costumes. We were keen to present Freddie as quite a shady and hidden character-we had him dressed in all black to reflect a dark side. We wanted to make sure Jade was quite girly therefore we the actor wear her hair down and wear quite girly pyjamas. We also focused on the surroundings because this gave away a lot about our piece. For example we included an establishing shot initially of a peaceful village and included sounds of birds chirping to present a picture of innocence.
This is our establishing shot which we placed at the beginning of our sequence. We wanted the shot show an peaceful and "normal" village. We made sure no people were in the shot because we wanted to present this idea of tranquillity. These houses additionally look quite modern which is good because right from the beginning the audience are shown the time period. We used this to contrast the social group we were trying to present. Our characters are young and he is involved in a lot of drama. We wanted this to seem unexpected because of the village seeming so calm and uneventful.
This is some shots of our character Freddie Sharp. He needed to reflect a young man who had this dark side. We had him dress in black to reflect this. We kept his costume understated and simple. This was an attempt to reflect that in his mind what he is doing is so simple and not necessarily wrong. The converse and hoodie-cardigan show that he is a younger character. These are quite popularly worn amongst this age group, but typically in a colour other than black. This is significant because it shows that he is defying group norms. Black similarly reflects a hidden side. We looked at a few RMAs to see what characters typical of this type of role would wear. We thought "Teen Wolf" was a good one as they are teenage boys with a secret dark side. in most TV shows and movies the evil baddie wears black so this was an easy way to get the fundamental idea behind his character across. The colour of black is also often associated with death which is obviously a prominent theme in our crime drama. It is typically socially understood that people who wear black may be
aggressive and people that we may want to avoid.
This is our character Jade Jarvis. We contrasted Freddie's costume and personality with jade who wears white to reflect purity and innocence. This difference exaggerates each of their roles. In addition to reflecting this, white often shows emptiness which is also a main theme that comes to light right at the end. We had her in white but also made sure her mannerisms were very particular and precise to show that she is very clean. We liked the spot of red on the top because typically red represents danger which is another important idea. We had her hair down to show a girly side, particularly when she brushes her hair to shows her taking a keen interest in her appearance. This is very stereotypical of girls this age (taking pride in her appearance.)
At the end Jade is on the floor crying leaving the audience guessing what has happened. The black mascara shows the pristine clean and white image destroyed, almost reflecting the end of her innocence. The black is the most dominant colour in this shot and again represents danger. We also did this because he is wearing black so it hints that it was him that hurt her and he has left his mark on her. We kept her still to show that he has taken control of her and she has lost her ability to take control of herself.
We used an iPhone as an important element to our mise-en-scene. It is hugely representative of this modern day time where everyone seems to have one. Again the white matches well with Jades innocent personality.
